Royal Houses
by Alexandra Irene Spears
Summary: Adam's and Adora's children are growing up and getting ready to start lives of their own. However, there are some people still bent on causing trouble. (Sequel to Family Tangles)


Royal Houses

by Alexandra Spears

 _A/N: Disclaimer applies, characters are not mine, not making money off them, etc. This may be one of my longer ones! Going from multiple POVs here._

* * *

Chapter 1: Twin Cousin Birthday

Duchess Marissa of Eternia woke up one morning and realized that today was her sixteenth birthday. Normally she would want to stay in bed, but not today. There would be a party today for her and her cousin Duncan, who had been born the same day as she-about eight hours earlier. Friends and relatives would be coming from all over Eternia, as well as Etheria. She thought Prince Micah of Bright Moon was rather cute.

Marissa was the oldest of Sea Hawk and Adora's five children. Duke Jeremy, who was a blue-eyed redhead, was going on fourteen. Duchess Emmeline, a green-eyed blonde, was almost twelve. Nine-year-old Duchess Marla, who had her father's green eyes and red hair, would be ten late that spring. The youngest, Duke Peter, would be eight that summer, and he was a blue-eyed blond like his mother and uncle.

The children had three first cousins. Duncan was the oldest of Adam and Teela's children, and he had two younger sisters. Princess Miranda was a blue-eyed redhead and she would be thirteen next month. Princess Lana was a blue-eyed blonde who would be nine in a few months.

The family jokingly referred to Duncan and Marissa as twin cousins, since they were born the same day, and his father and her mother were twins. Adam and Adora were thirty-six years old but looked no older than twenty-five.

As Marissa got a shower and got dressed, she thought about her family. There had been some bad things going on when she was a baby. She had a second cousin, Countess Kerianne, who would be sixteen that summer. Kerianne's parents had died the day she was born. The circumstances had been horrible. Kerianne's father had married her mother, Adam and Adora's cousin Duchess Edwina, so they could plot to take out the royal family together and rule Eternia. Count Marzo had murdered his mother-in-law-Kerianne's maternal grandmother-and had accidentally killed Edwina. Marzo had been trying to kill Adora until Sea Hawk intervened and wound up finishing him off. Kerianne had been born minutes after her mother's death.

Kerianne had a stepgrandmother; her grandfather, having been widowed, remarried five years later to a much younger woman and they had a son, Prince Jason, who was now nine years old and who was Edwina's half-brother. Jason was Kerianne's younger half-uncle and he was next in line for the throne of the Plains Kingdom; before his birth, Kerianne had been next in line. Kerianne didn't seem to resent it, as she was an heir to the throne of Eternia while her uncle was not. In fact, from what Marissa could tell, Kerianne treated her uncle like a younger brother.

Marissa made a mental note to reach out to her second cousin. The two didn't meet up very often, but from what Marissa saw, Kerianne seemed to be depressed much of the time, even though her grandfather and his new wife loved her. Perhaps it was her background; Kerianne knew about her history and probably felt like she wasn't worth anything.

* * *

Miles from Eternos, in the Plains Kingdom, Countess Kerianne woke up in her pink-and-white canopied bed. She remembered that today was her cousins' birthday and that she and her family had been invited.

Her own birthday was really nothing to celebrate, in her opinion. Technically speaking, her parents had died before she was born-minutes before. She did not hold a grudge against Marissa's father, Sea Hawk, for killing her father, Count Marzo. She'd been told what had happened.

She got up and sat down at her vanity and gazed into the mirror. Staring back was a lovely young girl of fifteen with raven-black hair and bright blue eyes that she'd been told she had inherited from her great-grandmother, Queen Adeline of Eternia, wife of King Miro. She took after her father's side, mostly. She had been their heir to her father's county, but last year she had located her oldest half-brother, who was twenty-one, and had given it to him, since she wanted nothing to do with it. She had probably half a dozen half-siblings by her father. They mostly ignored her, but the one half-brother kept in touch with her.

"I will not be depressed today. I am not going to spoil my cousins' birthday," she murmured as she got up and went into her bathroom.

She showered and washed her hair, and when she was done she put on a robe. Going back to her vanity, she sat down to brush her hair.

There was a knock at the door. "Come in," she called.

In stepped Queen Judith, Kerianne's stepgrandmother, who let Kerianne call her Judith. "You look sad, dear," she said as she took the brush and began brushing Kerianne's hair.

"I'll try not to be sad today, Judith," said Kerianne.

"Someone having a birthday makes you sad, I know it does," said Judith as she gently pulled the brush through her stepgranddaughter's hair. "I know all about it. But Kerianne, you are not your parents. You are nothing like them. You are Kerianne. You are a sweet, gentle girl. But you need to move past this, darling."

Kerianne turned around and Judith hugged her. "Your grandfather and I love you very much. Now get into that new dress you picked out-and I'll get your uncle into the bathtub."

"Good luck with that, Judith," Kerianne said, cracking a smile for the first time that morning. Her young half-uncle loved getting dirty and would roll with pigs in mud if permitted to do so.

* * *

Prince Duncan was in his room, trying to comb his hair for his and Marissa's party today. His younger sisters were on his bed, pillow-fighting. Duncan was serious like his mother and her parents, while his sisters were fun-loving like their father. "Dad, would you tell these two to get out of my room?" he called. "Please?"

Prince Adam came into his son's room. "All right, girls You two need baths and you need to get dressed," he said, seeing that his daughters were still in their nightgowns. "And you need to start giving your brother some privacy."

"Boys," said Lana as she stuck her tongue out at her brother's back.

"Now," said Adam.

"Yes, sir," said Miranda as she took her younger sister's hand and led her out of their brother's room.

Adam sat down on his son's bed. "Excited?" he asked.

"Yeah, especially since I get to see Kerianne again. She's kind of cute," he said. On Eternia, second cousins were permitted to marry. The royal family had to keep a closer watch on that kind of thing, which was why they were open to commoners marrying into the family. A relationship between Prince Duncan and Countess Kerianne would be acceptable.

"You have a crush on her, do you?" asked Adam.

Duncan blushed. Adam saw his son's reflection in the mirror and laughed. "It's all right, Duncan, you're at the age where you like girls. I grew up with your mother but it took me a bit to really notice her."

"I think she's sad a lot, and I feel sorry for her," Duncan told his father.

"If your granduncle did not want to take her in, we would have," Adam reminded him. "She has family that cares about her. It's just that the circumstances surrounding her birth were far from ideal." Technically speaking, King Milton was no longer their uncle, as he had been an uncle-by-marriage, but they still referred to him as such. He was the grandfather of one of Eternia's heirs. They also referred to his wife as Aunt Judith, which she didn't mind.

* * *

The celebration was to take place in the ballroom. Adora held Sea Hawk's hand as they escorted their children there. Sea Hawk was now forty-one but looked no older than thirty, and he was as passionate with her as he'd always been. "Our children are growing up," Adora sighed.

"That they are, my lovely," Sea Hawk said as he gave her hand a squeeze.

They entered the ballroom. Marissa went to join her cousin Duncan, as this party was for both of them. The other children found their cousins.

"In a couple of years she'll be eighteen...and I married you when I was eighteen," Adora reminded him. She turned and faced him, and he lightly caressed her cheek.

Suddenly, Adora caught sight of Kerianne, her first cousin once removed. Kerianne was trying not to stare, and she was smiling a little. Adora sometimes wondered if Kerianne blamed Sea Hawk for her father's death, even though she said she was aware of what had taken place. Sea Hawk released Adora and they both hugged the fifteen-year-old girl.

"You look lovely, Kerianne," Adora said. She then saw Kerianne's family and greeted them. Milton, Judith, and Jason were not related by blood; they were connected because of Kerianne. No one in Adora's family thought of Judith as having usurped Mira's place; they treated her as part of the family.

"I hate dressing up," whined Jason, who had his father's auburn hair.

"Oh, don't worry, lad, you'll still have fun," Sea Hawk assured him.

* * *

Kerianne managed to enjoy the party, even though she was sure other royals were talking about her behind her back. She was a royal too. Like her second cousins, she was an heir to the throne of Eternia; in the line of succession, she was right after Sea Hawk and Adora's youngest daughter, Duchess Marla. Adam's sons were first after Adam, then his daughters, then Adora, then her sons, then her daughters. After Kerianne was her cousin Prince Dal. Since her half-uncle's mother was not a descendant of King Miro, he wasn't even in the line, not for Eternia's throne.

She was meandering around, seeing whom she could talk to, when Prince Duncan approached her. "Duncan," she said. "Happy birthday."

"Thanks," said Duncan. "Here, let's go out on the patio and talk." He held out his elbow, and she placed her hand on it. She didn't know Duncan all that well, since she was usually in her own kingdom and he in his, but she knew that her distant cousin was friendly. He strongly resembled his father.

Kerianne allowed Duncan to lead her out onto the patio, where they sat down on a bench together. She had been born in this palace. Her parents had died here.

"You seem down, Kerianne," Duncan said.

"I'm sorry. I don't mean to cast a shadow over everything," Kerianne said, a bit flustered.

"No, it's okay," he assured her. "You're a really nice girl."

"I sometimes wonder if people wish I wasn't born," Kerianne confessed.

"Well...you weren't an illegitimate child. It's just that your parents...well, from what I heard, they were not well-liked. Your father had these grand schemes to take over Eternia and your mother was very self-centered. My grandfathers were keeping an eye on them."

"I sometimes wonder if I inherited any of their evil," Kerianne said quietly.

"Oh, Kerianne...I hardly think so. To be honest, had you been raised by them, you might have turned out differently." He took her hand, and much to her surprise, he kissed the back of it gently. "You're definitely my kind of girl."

Kerianne was blushing furiously. Duncan was a handsome young man and she wouldn't mind getting to know him much better. She had no ambitions; she would be perfectly content to marry someone she was in love with. She rather liked the young man and the fact that he was in line for the throne after his father was just the icing on the cake.

"Duncan, I have to tell you...I have these half-siblings," she said.

"Oh, everyone knows about that."

"Duncan-I have three half-brothers, and one of them wants to avenge our father. Your uncle, Sea Hawk, is in danger."


End file.
